Transgender Contestant Wins "Holland's Next Top Model"

The finale of Holland's Next Top Model's eighth cycle aired last night, with 20-year-old model Loiza Lamers crowned the winner. Lamers is the first trans contestant to win a Top Model cycle, worldwide, though previous trans contestants (Isis King, for example, of America's Next Top Model cycle 11) have made their mark on the show.

A popular contestant, Lamers reportedly did not tell producers of her background during auditions (and really, nor should she have to, as she now identifies as a woman and that's that). But let's not pretend there aren't background checks happening either; speculation online — as a child, and already living as a girl, she appeared in a Dutch documentary short, which resurfaced — as episodes aired led her to confirm the rumors, and mid-cycle she discussed her transition publicly on the show. (She has since noted the overwhelmingly positive response to the news.) Following her big win, she described herself as "the luckiest woman in the world" on Instagram.